Game design: Everything you need to get started

Game design
(Image credit: Getty Images)

So, you want to get started with game design? Excellent idea, but what equipment do you need? Before we get going with all the fun stuff like modelling and lighting, we need to get organised. Life will be an awful lot simpler if we set ourselves up for success. We could just dive right in and make trees, write some music and start filling a terrain with random objects, but in reality that will lead to a lot of headaches, stress and lost time, as you spend hours searching for assets (these free 3D models might help there), digging through random folders and so on. Not fun at all! This article will run through exactly what you need to start your game design project.

We will need a structure to store and manage various types of assets, a computer system capable of running the software needed to build the game, the software to do so and storage with enough space for everything (including revisions). Let's take a look at all this in more detail and break down what we need and why. Want a new device? Here are the best games consoles around. Need to glimpse the future and issues that are arising, take a look at Meta's game design misstep.

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Rob Redman is the editor of ImagineFX magazines and former editor of 3D World magazine. Rob has a background in animation, visual effects, and photography.

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